Saturday, 23 May 2015

Just a quick update. The Stars Betrayed is nearly through it's final edit, and the cover above almost ready too. The artist by the way is Adam Kopala of Deviant Art though I added the text.

So hopefully in a few days The Intruder will take to the stars - and my first book of the year will be published. (It's been a long time between drinks as they say!)

It's a space opera as you might have guessed, with a strong theme of betrayal running through it. Essentially everyone save the hero is both betrayer and betrayed and that weaves together to form the plot. It is most similar to "All the Stars a Grave" though it's set in a very different universe. One in which humanity has been made second class citizens by genetically engineered Ubers, and a war is raging between the Terran Empire and the Alliance.

After this The Arcanist heads down to my editor - just in time for her birthday! I always give the best presents!

Friday, 8 May 2015

(Mock up model of The Intruder from my cover artist Adam Kopala - can't wait to see the finished version.)

Just sent off "The Stars Betrayed" for its second line edit, and so have a little time to spend on other things. So I thought I'd talk a little bit about the ship.

First, though the ship - The Intruder - is important to the story, this is not a simple "man in a battleship goes off to have adventures" space opera. The ship is just a vehicle (pun intended!) for the story. Rather this is a story of lies and betrayal - betrayal at every level. (Though I will not explain that any further since it might spoil the story by giving away some plot elements.) It's about why people will betray others including the ones they love. What will push them to do something almost unthinkable. And what sorts of betrayals can be forgiven. But also it asks the question, is their a longer term price to be paid?

It's also a story about Nietzsche's supermen. As some of you may know I am not a fan of Nietzsche, and I regard his supermen as people akin to sociopaths. People with no moral compass other than what they decide for themselves to be right and wrong, good and evil. That is not in my view a good thing. And when you give such people power, it can become a very bad thing indeed. When you give them ultimate power through say genetic engineering, it can be a nightmare.

Nietzsche himself saw his ubersmench as heroic figures in the ancient Greek tradition. Almost godlike and unbowed. He saw them as a vision of what men should be. He did not seem to accept that men have the impulses of both angels and demons in them. That yes we can be wonderful, true and loving. But we can also be monsters. And when psychologists tell us that one to three percent of our society have sociopathic tendencies, the monster within has to be recognised.

The Stars Betrayed grew out of these disparate ideas and also one further one - that some betrayals, even the most terrible can be forgiven. For example the father desperate to save both his drowning children who can only save one. He has to sacrifice / betray one to save the other, or else lose both.

Yes that can be forgiven. It can be understood even. But the cost of such a decision would be soul destroying for the father. And the question hardly ever asked is what would the sacrificed child think of his father's betrayal? Could he forgive him? Could he understand? Or is it a betrayal too great?

I hope that this book will make readers think about these same issues - as well as hopefully be entertained!

WELCOME

Hi, I'm Greg and welcome to my blog.

Please do make yourself at home and feel free to make comments about my posts. Down the bottom of the blog you'll find the covers of my ebooks, and with a little luck, clicking on them will bring you directly to them in Amazon, where you can read a little more about them.

Hope you have a good time and come back soon. I'll try to keep writing blogs as well as books.

Cheers.

Author Pic

About Me

Hi, What can I say about me?
Well I suppose first and foremost I'm a lover of science fiction and fantasy and a little horror. I have been since I was a child and discovered among other things, Star Trek. (Yes I'm a trekkie!)
Since all I read and watch is sci fi and fantasy, that's also what I write. So please don't expect to find books on auto-mechanics. (And if you did I wouldn't trust them since I can barely hold a wrench the right way round!)
Other then that I am also a fan of philosophy, and maybe one day I'll write a book putting my views about the Kalem Cosmological Argument - it's sure to bore everyone!